NEW PALTZ >> SUNY New Paltz students and community activists, led by Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and New York Students Rising (NYSR), held a protest outside of a Police Benevolence Association (PBA) award ceremony recognizing the New Paltz University Police Department’s drug arrests for 2013.

The ceremony, held Friday at the New Paltz campus, awarded the college’s police department for having the most drug-related arrests. Protesting students and community activists were concerned that there may be over policing on the campus.

Brandon Missig of NYSR New Paltz Chapter said the protest was not just to address over-policing, but also, to address the celebration of something that resulted in the expulsion of students for non-violent crimes.

“We want UPD to recognize that this is not an honorable thing,” said Missig. “It’s not a drug arrest rate that they’re getting awarded for; it’s specifically a marijuana arrest rate. You look at the police log on campus and police are almost exclusively responding to calls about a smell of pot in a dorm or somewhere on campus and then they show up and it goes unwarranted. That’s silly. If that’s all the campus police are doing all day long, then it’s clear that we have too many police on campus.”

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Daniel DeFedericis, the executive director and legal counsel for NYPBA, said the award was for overall drug arrests per capita on campus and included arrests for drugs other than marijuana. DeFedericis spoke to a NYSR representative and said they seemed to have some common ground on the issue when it came to drug arrests for substances other than marijuana but, he maintained that marijuana is still illegal in New York and believes it was important to recognize the dutiful police work of the university’s police.

“The police enforce the laws on the books,” said DeFedericis. “We’re not in Colorado. In New York State it is still illegal to possess marijuana and with all the negative news about police departments in other areas of the country, I think it’s fantastic that we are honoring a police department for doing such a diligent job.”

Student protestors said that the marijuana policy at SUNY New Paltz has been an ongoing issue for years since it is one of the strictest in the state where two instances of marijuana possession will result in expulsion. Missig says that currently, NY Students Rise has had no feedback from university administrators on changing the policy but it does not mean that they are giving up.

“In contrast to many other private and public institutions, the College has its own police force, and officers patrol the campus and are readily available to respond quickly to reports of drug use,” said college spokeswoman Melissa Kaczmarek. “Students arrested for marijuana use or possession on campus are subject to judicial proceedings, evaluated by counselors, and educated about drug use. As such, the disparity between first-violation and subsequent violations suggest our policies result in an extremely low rate of recidivism. None of us want to see arrests on our campus, but the safety of students will always be our top priority.”